NASA Live Broadcast

Prep pupils tuned into a live broadcast with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center this week, listening to experts from the Space Camp. Space Camp is an educational camp in Alabama, on the grounds of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center museum which provides educational programs for children and adults on themes such as space exploration, aviation and robotics.

In the broadcast, pupils explored astronaut training, careers in space and how the organisation has helped past students to become astronauts. Hosted by Liverpool’s own astronaut trainee Dr Jacyln Bell, the show featured NASA’s Planetarium Director and Space Camp’s senior director of communications.

Mrs Doran

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Author Live Broadcast

On Thursday, all Prep school classes were invited to a live author talk with award winning author AJ Hartley. AJ first read an extract from the start of his new book, Monsters in the Mirror and then answered questions set by the children tuning into the live broadcast. AJ Hartley has written over 23 novels and has written books for both children and adults including mystery/thriller, fantasy and historical fiction. His first book was published at 19yrs old and he is originally from the North West in Preston!

His new book, Monsters in the Mirror, focuses on a small boy from the UK who is struggling to fit in at school, Darwen seeks solace in a mysterious shop full of mirrors. It’s there that he discovers the ability to step through mirrors into different worlds – worlds beyond his wildest imagination. The problem with doors is that they open both ways. There are monsters inside, and some of them are trying to get out.

AJ Hartley explained his tips for writing a great story and the process of writing a short story. He recommended thinking first of a ‘hook’ for the story – an idea that you can summarise in just one or two sentences. He said not to wait for a perfect idea as most of his best ideas have come to him whilst he’s been writing. He also recommended writing with no distractions so you can fully focus on the language you are using to tell your story and finally, to never judge a book by its cover!

Mrs Doran

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Sunday Night Boarding House Handball

Mrs Latham (Head of Boarding) and Mr Cook (Director of Sport) organised an evening of socially distanced Handball for boarding students within their bubble. The active evening enabled the students to show off their individual sporting talents and when needed play as a team by supporting one another and scoring lots of goals where every team player was involved. This will be the first of many weekend team building sporting opportunities for the boarders. 

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Exclusive: Industrial Light Magic Workshop

On Tuesday, Liverpool College was involved in an event out of this world when our Prep pupils were invited to attend a live workshop led by Industrial Light Magic.  ILM is the special effects company formed by George Lucas in 1975 to make the most successful movie series of all time – STAR WARS. The special effects company has since gone on to create over 300 blockbusters, such as Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Ghostbusters, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, Spiderman, the Avengers films and the Transformers movies (to name just a few)!

The broadcast included a practical demonstration by actual artists, 3D modellers and special visual directors. They taught pupils the process of drawing Star Wars space vehicles from concept thumbnail sketches to 2D drawing from different perspectives followed by how to convert these drawings into a 3D models that can be brought to life on screen. Liverpool College pupils were then given an opportunity to present questions to some of the greatest special effects experts in the world. Thank you to Edward, Bailie, Leilani, Hannah and Emily for their wonderful questions,  STEAM schools for coordinating the event and of course ILM for their superb workshop.

Mrs Doran

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Inspiring Writers: Alex Wheatle

Year 6 pupils were extraordinarily lucky on Monday when they were able to meet Alex Wheatle, who earned an MBE in 2008 for his service to Literature. Alex is an award winning author winning the 2016 Guardian Children’s fiction Award for Crongton Knights. His latest novel, Cane Warriors, is the story of the emancipation of enslaved people from Jamaican plantations in 1760. Copies of this novel were kindly gifted to the school by BookTrust. Organised by Mrs Doran, pupils in Year 6 were offered the opportunity to ask this incredibly accomplished author questions about his journey into becoming a writer and he gave them the benefit of his experience as to how they can also fulfil their life’s potential. Alex shared with the pupils how he had grown up in the notorious Shirley Oaks children’s home in Croydon and how that shaped his early experiences. He discussed how his custodial sentence for his role in the Brixton riots became a crucial turning point in his life – allowing him time to reengage with reading and writing. Locally, Alex became know as the BrixtonBard. Alex was a truly inspirational speaker, impressing on the students the importance of education in transforming and modelling successful lives. Our sincere thanks to Alex for giving up his time so generously. We have invited him back to work with Key Stage 3 next term.

Mrs Doran

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Y7 House Sports Competition

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